Orcs vs. Commoner Humans

[Primitive Screwhead]

New thought struck me as I wandered over to the House Rules forum..

Alot of the disagreement on this thread are bases on assumptions of the campaign world. What comprises a 'village', what sort of commoners are there. How often to Orcs raid. What support can a village expect from the local goverment.

I see frontier lands pretty much as the mid west America around the end of the 18th century. Civilization is encroaching on the barbaric wilds. A psuedo-fuedal setting with minimal economic support for standing armies means reliance on 'adventuring bands'.. mercanary groups of individuals who ply violence for pay.
A frontier village would have to protect itself for a couple of days before being able to get assistance in from the nearest major city.

Anyway...

 

[Aloïsius]

First of all there are a number of strawmen in Moonstone Spider's scenario. First the area is described as a "village" but then it gets described as a "town." Generally speaking villages are not centralized and are not designed for defense. Families typically have their dwellings reasonably placed to be close to the community center but close to the area that they tend to farm. Craftsmen tend to be near the river. The local inn tends to be in a critical location on the general roads.

If the village is in an area where orcs raider are a threat, it will be fortificated. Most medieval villages in dangerous/contested area were. A good example : circulades. This kind of village was built in spiral or circle, so that the outer ring of houses provided a defense.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It's too bad the orcs aren't smarter. They could send a token force to approach the village from one direction, with lots of torches, noise and other indications that there's a lot of orcs there, while forty orcs sneak up on the village the other way. With nearly all the combat-capable villagers on one side...

 

[MHahn1976]

Just a suggestion to the OP. Let the village be suffering from some kind of illness that reduces the commoner's ability to fight. This also gives the orcs a reason to raid the village.

 

[RobotRobotI]

It's too bad the orcs aren't smarter. They could send a token force to approach the village from one direction, with lots of torches, noise and other indications that there's a lot of orcs there, while forty orcs sneak up on the village the other way. With nearly all the combat-capable villagers on one side...

-2 intelligence doesn't make them all retarded, you know. You don't think an Orc with 16 intelligence could think of something like that?

There are extraordinary orcs just like there're extraordinary everything else. They're not all completely idiotic. If they were, they wouldn't be such a feared race of invaders, neh?

 

[Land Outcast]

->All said by the previous posters supporting an orcish attack plus:

Orcs attack en-masse, usually don't rely on small striketeams (if they do, the Monster Manual points out that they have some higher level leaders)

A point already rised but unanswered: is the area usually attacked by orcs?

[sblock]A scream shattered the night.

Jacob woke up and grabbed his club from besides the bed. He moved to the door, opened it, and saw in the distance old Bentham’s farm on fire.
Immediately he returned inside, while putting on his pants woke his wife. Then the two of them went to the children’s room, little Timmy had woken up too, and was standing, asking “What was that noise mommy?”. Worry coated Jacob’s face.
They woke the others too, a few minutes later Molly and the four young children departed in oposite direction to Bentham’s farm.

Debart asked his father “Shall we go help ol’ Bentham?”.
Jacob, still worried answered “Nay my son, it is surely too late by now, we have to make a decision, stay here and try to protect the house, the only thing we have, or go and reunite with one of the farms yet not attacked” and handed Debart a makeshift club from a chair’s leg.

Father and son abandoned the house, surely it’d be put to fire, but it’d do no good to a pair of corpses and a widow with four children. So they started the way to the Winston’s farm by the road, clubs at the ready. In the dark so as not to make easy target for whoever was attacking.

Suddenly, a noise, a grunt, and more, many more.
Without a word, Jacob and his son started running desperately, maybe they would reach Winston’s if they could mantain the distance between them and the raiders. The noises became war screams and bloodthirsty roars, the thumping of feet increased to a frantic behind them.

Debart started outrunning his father. Jacob thought Maybe I could slow them, Deb still has a whole life in front of him, and was immediately striken, he saw his son falling, skewered by a doomsent javelin. Tears on his eyes, still running to the top of his strength, he shouted “FATHERS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BURY THEIR CHILDREN!”, and then it struck him... Maybe I won’t be able to bury him.[/sblock]

 

[IanB]

Just a note about dog breeds here - that note about 'collies, huskies, and St. Bernards' is a bit silly in the MM. If you've ever met a collie or a husky, you'll realize that in the case of the former dog, it is much too docile (and frankly wimpy) to be a significant combatant, and in the case of the latter, they're not large enough to be considered medium; I suspect the author was thinking of akitas or malamutes.

As for St. Bernards, they're pretty lazy and docile as well, but at least they're big enough for the stats to reflect decently.

I would personally only use those stats for large breeds with some degree of aggressiveness or use in hunting or guarding - mastiffs, akitas, etc. Your average farm dog, even a mean one, is probably better suited to the smaller dog stats.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Round 1: 25 orcs swing and get an average of 18 hits (dropping all fractions). 18 commoners down. 50 commoners swing and get an average of 15 hits. 10 orcs down.

There's a problem with your modle, in that it assumes an injured orc and an orc at full health are equally likely to drop. On round 1 the orcs are at full hit points, thus the humans need to roll a 5 or 6 to drop them. Thus only 1/3 of the orc his will drop (so 5 instead of 10, and half of those are actually staggered, and can get one last hit in if they want).

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

-2 intelligence doesn't make them all retarded, you know. You don't think an Orc with 16 intelligence could think of something like that?

There are extraordinary orcs just like there're extraordinary everything else. They're not all completely idiotic. If they were, they wouldn't be such a feared race of invaders, neh?

An orc wiht Int 16 is as smart as they get. That's rare, just like a human 1st-level character with Int 18 is rare. If an orc is that smart, they shouldn't be leading raids. They should be leading multiple tribes.

 

[Victim]

If the village is in an area where orcs raider are a threat, it will be fortificated. Most medieval villages in dangerous/contested area were. A good example : circulades. This kind of village was built in spiral or circle, so that the outer ring of houses provided a defense.

Those villages look much bigger than 50 people though.